Do you have a regular morning routine?

Perhaps you wash your face… brush your teeth… and apply some moisturiser…

Maybe you follow that with a few stretches and a cup of strong coffee.

All pretty normal.

Compare that to the routine of 20-year-old social media influencer, Clavicular (real name Braden Peters).

What HE likes to do is stand in front of a mirror and SMASH HIS FACE WITH A HAMMER.

I guess it’s different strokes for different folks!

Young Braden carries out this routine so that he can get a perfectly chiselled jawline.

He has other unusual recommendations for becoming better looking, too.

Like starving yourself, taking crystal meth or injecting yourself with testosterone.

He’s one of the new breed of ‘Looksmaxxers’ building up massive followings of men on social media, many in their late teens or early twenties – also known as the ‘Manosphere’.

‘Looksmaxxing’ began in the early 2010s as a phrase bandied about on misogynistic online forums.

But in the last few years, it has become huge on social media, with legions of sad young men obsessing over their skin, jawline, eye-shape and posture…

They use all sorts of techniques for improvement…

Like mewing, where you place your tongue at the roof of the mouth and apply pressure to modify the shape of jaws… or eating chewing gum all day to strengthen the face muscles.

In extreme cases they resort to facial surgery or leg extension operations.

Kids, these days, huh!?

In my view, these are deluded, emasculated young men.

And their body obsessions are verging on the dysmorphic.

Take for instance, the guy I saw on the BBC website a few days ago, a 26-year-old a looksmaxxer named Marvin.

Despite being a fit, healthy young man, he gave himself a 7/10 and said: “I’m not happy with my skin, eyebags and my jawline could be better.”

This is why, every morning, he cleanses his face with a variety of cosmetic products… rubs a frozen cucumber over it… then carries out numerous facial exercises.

I guess it’s better than smashing your own face with a hammer!

But while this is all quite ridiculous…

I have to admit, everyone has a little bit of the ‘looksmaxxing’ urge inside of them.

Many people look in the mirror and wish they could change something.

But it’s not usually just about looks.

It’s about wanting to transform your identity.

For example, Marvin the Looksmaxxer has created an income from sharing his facial exercises on social media.

He told the BBC that he’s gone from “unsatisfied carpenter working nine to five” to an “online entrepreneur”.

So really, the chiselled jawline and lustrous skin was not the ultimate goal.

What he most wanted was to change his situation in life.

Beneath all the surface aims of being more conventionally attractive, what Looksmaxxers really want is more confidence, higher status and sense of belonging.

And this is something worth considering when you’re tying to create and sell an online product.

An Appeal to The ‘Future Self’

Before anyone buys your product or service they’ve already pictured a future version of themselves….

One who has used the product and benefited from it.

And it’s this vision that drives them to click ‘buy’.

This is at the core of what psychologist E. Torry. Higgins calls ‘Self-Disrepancy Theory’.

It’s that gap between the ‘actual self’ and the ‘ideal self’ which creates emotional tension and motivates us to act in order to BECOME that idealised future self.

This applies to your potential customers…

They might be shopping for an Etsy planner to make them more organised…

Or an eBook about social media marketing to get them more website visitors…

Or a mug with a photo of their kids on it..

In each case the emotional urge to buy is powered by what the prospect sees in their mind when they have their problem fixed, or a desire fulfilled.

For example…

• The person who downloads the Etsy planner envisions a version of himself who gets all their tasks done without stress, who enjoys more success in life, with less anxiety and more free time to spend with loved ones.
• The eBook buyer sees a future version of herself as an online success, pulling in customers from social media and becoming more credible, influential and profitable.
• The mug buyer sees the dad he wants to be – proud of his kids, to be seen as such by his friends or co-workers.

This has always been the golden rule of persuasion, championed by the advertising greats.

For instance, in his 1966 book Breakthrough Advertising, Eugene Schwartz argued that prospects don’t buy products… they buy the feeling that the product promises.

Claude Hopkins made the same case in his 1923 book Scientific Advertising, that you should always focus on the emotional result, not the mechanism.

And you might have heard the phrase (attributed to Elmer Wheeler, a 1930s American salesman) “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”?

It means that people aren’t really motivated by the slab of meat.

They are motivated by an idea themselves in the future with a delicious steak sizzling in the pan, and how that will make them feel.

This technique applies to pretty much any kind of product.

For example..

• A moisturiser isn’t just about skin hydration. It’s about looking younger and healthier, so that you feel more confident when they walk into a room.
• A sleep tracking app isn’t just about better sleep. It’s about feeling more energetic, positive and alert during the day, so that you can be the best version of yourself.
• A home trading course isn’t just about making money. It’s about the freedom in life that comes from being financially independent and able to work from anywhere with a laptop.

So if you want to create a product or service, you should think about the ‘Looksmaxxing’ urge in your customer.

What is it that they want to become?

How can your product help them transform into that version of themselves?

Here are two ways you can do it…

1. The Avatar Technique

I’ve written before about the power of a customer ‘avatar’ – that is, a description of the persona of your ideal buyer.

Well, this comes in very handy here..

Because you need to try and imagine a day in the life of your prospect.

Put yourself in their shoes, and ask yourself…

What do they see in the mirror in the morning?

What frustrations do they feel?

What would they like to fix or improve?

What obstacles get in their way?

What makes them sad, angry or frightened?

What makes them happy and motivated?

You can use AI for this. Take your customer avatar and paste it in with this prompt:

“Here is a description of my ideal customer: [paste avatar]. Write a detailed ‘day in the life’ of this person. Show their morning routine, their frustrations at work, their mood in the evening, what they worry about before bed. Make it feel real with specific details and genuine emotions.”

Now feed the AI details of your product:

“My product is [describe the problem it solves or goal it helps people reach]. Write a vivid scene showing the same person’s day three months after buying it. Show what has changed, practically and emotionally. How does it feel to be them now?”

The more detail you give about your product and audience, the more useful the output.

This paragraph will become one of the most powerful things you can put into any sales copy because it shows the buyer exactly who they could become.

2. Turn Features into Benefits

The second method focuses on the product or service itself.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t actually created it yet. Just think about what it would look like when made.

Write down every feature of your product.

These are the practical things it contains or does.

It could include a 12-module video course…. A 30-day meal plan…. a set of Canva templates… an email sequence for launching a product.

Then ask yourself this question about each feature:

“So what?”

Because a feature on its own doesn’t sell anything.

What really sells is how that feature will lead to a real-world transformation in the life of your customer.

For example, let’s say you’ve created a beginner’s guide to selling on Etsy.

You could turn features like these into benefits.

• FEATURE: Step-by-step setup guide.
  BENEFIT: you can have your shop live within a day, and start making a life-changing second income, even if you’ve never sold anything online before
• FEATURE: 50 product niche ideas.
  BENEFIT: No more staring at a blank page, feeling stressed wondering what to sell. You’ll save hours of time.
• FEATURE: Pricing calculator template.
  BENEFIT: You’ll always know exactly what to charge, and ensure your product gets plenty of sales, meaning more money.

You can use AI to speed up the process. Try a prompt like this:

“Here are the features of my product: [list them]. For each one, write the emotional or practical benefit it delivers to the customer, then write one sentence of sales copy that sells the benefit rather than the feature.”

This should help you build up a list of ways that you’ll help your customer ‘looksmaxx’ their life.

All without them needing to smash their faces to bits with a hammer!

As a result, your product will have a strong emotional appeal and make more sales!